NEW DELHI: ​Investments worth ​over Rs1000 crore are on the fence as handset making companies, contract manufacturers and component makers await clarity on ​duty sops for local manufacturers that India ​could offer ​under the GST regime which kicks in from July 1.

Continuation of ​sops ​is essential for international investors such as Foxconn, Flex and iPhone maker Wistron Corp.​ Besides global and local players such as Oppo, Vivo, Micromax and Lava to continue to participate in the Make in India initiative.

​Meanwhile, in the lead-up to implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) regime, the likes of contract manufacturer Foxconn and some handset companies ​are set to cut production by up to 40% in June, while some plan to stall component supplies to minimize inventories of finished goods.

"Investments worth more than Rs 1,000 crore are stalled, waiting for clarity on the duty differential or imposition of basic customs duty under GST," said Pankaj Mohindroo, president of Indian Cellular Association, without naming specific companies. The association represents all handset making companies including Apple, Samsung and Micromax, among others.

The government’s move to levy 12% GST on mobile phones will push up prices of locally made phones by 4-5%, bringing them at par with imported ones, thus taking away advantage for domestic manufacturing which existed due to the existing duty differential structure. The association Monday sought finance ministry's intervention to exempt phones under Rs 5,000 from GST or impose a 5% GST to keep them low cost is possible, while 12% can be kept for the rest.The association has also asked the ministry to define 'parts' for mobile phone manufacturing, that will attract a 12% GST. It added that sub-parts should also be put under the 12% tax limit.While the government has assured its support to the industry, with imposition of basic customs duty (BCD) on imported phones emerging as a strong option to make imports more expensive vis-à-vis locally made devices, it is yet to take a final decision.

"Make in India is a very important program and has gathered a lot of momentum in a last 2.5 years. Our endevaour is to make sure that momentum is not lost," said Ajay Kumar, additional secretary of electronics and IT ministry.

Implementation of GST from July 1 will also lead to a rise in prices of most phones, while creating some operational challenges for handset makers such as stock management and realigning production to keep fewer stocks at lower prices.

Industry sources add that contract manufacturer Foxconn plans to cut production by about 40% in the second half of June for some of its customers who want to keep stocks minimal. Foxconn, which makes phones for Xiaomi, OnePlus, Oppo, Gionee and Nokia, didn't comment on this query.

"We have adjusted local production… lowering it by about 10-15%, because we will have to control the stocks going to distributors and dealers in June, since we won’t get full credit, but we can’t stop business because sale to end consumer needs to continue,” said Rajeev Jain, chief financial officer at Intex Technologies, which sells phones and consumer durables.

As per transition rules under GST, companies can take credit of up to 40% of their GST liability against excise duty already paid on stocks lying with traders or retailers. Credit would be given once the central GST has been paid on the supply and the applicant has provided evidence of purchase of these goods.

Karbonn Mobiles, like many others, is seeking advice of tax experts to take the next steps, while stalling imports of semi-knocked down kits for some time, incurring losses. "We're trying to maximise our production capacity to take to the market stock (unassembled kits) that we've already imported, and we've put the rest of the material on hold awaiting clearance in early June," Pardeep Jain, the company’s MD, said.

Finnish charger maker Salcomp expects demand to drop by 20-30% during the initial implementation phase as the GST implementation is across the whole value chain. Company's MD Sasikumar Gendham told ET that the drop is expected to remain for a few weeks till the transition is done and business becomes settled.

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Here are 7 classic phones that deserve a 2017 revival

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In case you hadn’t heard, Nokia’s iconic 3310 is back — brought back to life by HMD Global, the company that now owns the rights to the Nokia name. Here are 7 other classic phones that deserve a comeback.

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Motorola Razr V3

(Image: amazon.com)

The Razr is one of few phones that still has a relevant design and high recall, on the same level as the Nokia 3310, many would say. The super-slim profile, flip design and chemically etched keypad stood out from the crowd quite easily. Even today, no one — not even Motorola — has been able to create something as iconic and desirable. It weighed a paltry 95 grams, had an anodized aluminum body, quad band support, dual colour displays, Bluetooth and a VGA camera.

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Nokia N-Gage

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Many will remember the N-Gage as the first smartphone for gamers. It took traditional phone design and turned it on its side — literally! It looked like a handled console with a colour screen in the center, D-pad on the left and number keys on the right (these also doubled up as gaming keys). It had a dedicated game slot for inserting game cartridges — the games had to be bought separately. It was powered by a 104Mhz processor and ran Series 60 OS. While the phone was unique, it did not find too much success due to many design flaws. A successor called the N-Gage QD that offered improved design and performance but by that time, the era of N-Gage was over.

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Sony Ericsson T68i

(Image: wikipedia.org)

The T68i was the phone for the youth when it launched in 2002. It had a colour screen, Bluetooth, email, T9 predictive text, customisable ring tones and was amongst the first phones to support MMS. It was one of the most feature-rich phones you could buy at the time and this is a big deal considering that BlackBerry and Symbian phones were very popular. There was even a separate add-on camera dongle if you felt like capturing photos.

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Nokia 6600

(Image: ebay.com)

The 6600 was amongst the first breed of high-end Symbian smartphones and was counted as the most advanced smartphone at launch in 2003. It included support to install games, browsers, office suites, themes and various other third-party apps. It was also one of the first smartphones to support mp3 playback and had a memory card slot for storage expansion. Features included a 2.1-inch colour display, VGA camera, Bluetooth, infrared, a 5-way joystick and a 104Mhz processor.

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Sony P990

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When it comes to smartphones, the P990 from Sony Ericsson stands its ground as one the most unique yet handy designs. It was the only phone at the time to offer multiple modes of text input: via the touchscreen, with a stylus, a QWERTY keyboard and a standard number pad. With the flip closed you had a number keypad but it revealed a full QWERTY keyboard when opened. That’s why the 2.7-inch touchscreen was smaller than previous versions of the phone. It was also one of the first to offer WiFi, 3G, video calling support via front VGA camera and handwriting recognition. It ran the UIQ 3 interface based on Symbian and was powered by a 208Mhz processor.

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Motorola StarTac

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This one wears the crown of being the first clamshell phone in the world, way back in 1996. If you’ve seen the old Star Trek movies, you can easily see that the StarTac drew inspiration from the communicator device. It was available in CDMA and GSM variants and is counted as one of the first phones to help push widespread adoption of mobile phones. There have been successors to the StarTac, namely the StarTac 2004 and StarTac III (2007) that offered updated specs and features.

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Nokia 8110

(Image: ebay.co.uk)

If you’ve seen the Matrix (movie), you’ll remember the curved slider Nokia phone used in multiple scenes. The phone used in the movie was the Nokia 8110 and it earned the nickname ‘Banana phone’ because of the unique curved slider. It had a green monochrome display and was also the first phones to come with an internal antenna. Even though the phone offered limited features, it won accolades for the stylish slider design. The successor to the phone was the Nokia 8850 that featured a similar stylish design and came with a blue monochrome display. The 8850 also had the added advantage of voice dialling support.

Jio’s Rs 2,399 annual plan offers 2GB per day data that costs effectively Rs 200 per month. It also offers unlimited voice and SMS. Airtel and Vodafone Idea’s Rs 2398 and Rs 2399 annual plans, on the other hand, offer 1.5GB per day data along with unlimited voice and SMS